Friday, 15 August 2014

Doing the same thing
over and over again and expecting a different result. Every year yet another
report is produced highlighting the crisis that is facing the UK construction
materials industry as a result of dwindling reserves.

The latest report from
BDS Marketing Research now says this situation “is now having a serious impact
on the industry.” The report goes on to say that over 100 existing pits could
close over the next five years unless extensions to extraction licences are
granted. The report’s author, Julian Clapp goes on to say “aggregate companies
need to get their planning applications submitted soon to ensure continuous
aggregate supply.”

Despite this annual
warning of impending doom the opportunity that it represents for the C&D
waste recycling sector is not being fully exploited. Given the obvious supply
gap that exists with virgin sand and gravel and crushed rock for construction
applications why hasn’t there been more investment in advanced processing
systems that offer specifiers a real alternative?

It’s an issue of
positioning – and for too long recycled sand and aggregates have been
positioned as a low value, lower quality option. “If there really is no other
option then I suppose we could use recycled material.”

So how do we change
this? First of all we need an acceptance within the C&D waste recycling sector
that if we persist with the most basic processing of this material we will
never be able to achieve the full potential offered by recycled sand and
aggregates.

The advanced processing
systems that will help to move recycled sand and aggregates up the value chain
are out there – and many within the industry are already using them. These
companies are enjoying the benefits of their foresight and are seeing recycled
materials used in high value construction applications as a viable alternative
to virgin materials.

While the success of
these companies is to be applauded they are the exception rather than the rule.
Let’s stop patting ourselves on the back about how good we’ve got at C&Dwaste recycling. Let’s face it – the definition of recycling is so broad that
it’s not hard to hit. If we’re being honest with ourselves a lot of what is
happening is simply dumping under another name.

The only way we’ll
succeed in moving recycled sand and aggregates up the value chain is to stop
focusing on hitting a meaningless “100% recycling” target for C&D waste and
instead start focusing on increasing the volumes of this material that are used
in high value construction applications.

By doing this we’ll not
only be ensuring that we are extracting maximum value from this valuable
resource but we’ll be in a great position to take advantage of the opportunity
presented by the lethargy of the construction materials industry and the
inadequate planning system that combine to create the opportunity in the first
place.